My current boss used to say thrust all the time during meetings. "The thrust of this discusion..." whatever. It got so bad I would do a thrust count for him and at the end of the meeting the thrustometer would be giving much to his shock. He was surprised he used the world so much and he made an effort to eliminate its use. When he said it he would laugh and look at me and now he has like virtually eliminated it.

A few years ago I worked with a guy that used this phrase all the time, but I've seen or heard it plenty of other places too.

In general it seems to be used as a way to reinforce a statement (and/or add "shock value") without providing any actual data to support it, or as a way for the speaker to conceal that fact that they haven't bothered to "do the math" themselves.

It works under the assumption that the person hearing it will take the statement at face value without verifying it, whether it is actually correct or not.

I cringe whenever anyone begins their answer to every question with "well, basically......."Do they assume I am unable to comprehend the full, detailed answer they could give, and must give me a simplified, basic version?Multiply the irritation factor by one hundred when this phrase is uttered by someone with that godawful, just-outside-London John Major/ Janet Street Porter nasal whine accent.

"...kind of idea".A crutch often used to say "similarly to this", or "using a certain fudge factor", or "here, I explained this to you, you'll get the idea, right?" But hearing it dozens of times within a 10 minute presentation. Uh oh...

All good choices above, but the one that really pisses me off right now, is when people say "absolutely" when they should be saying "yes" or "quite". I hear it all the time in the UK now, on the radio, on the telly, everywhere, and it devalues the word.

"TECHNICALLY" This phrase would drive me nuts at work. When this guy was asked to cover someone's job for their break he would respond "technically" I am not suppose to work there, or "technically" I am not qualified on that, or "technically" that is not in the sop. I have heard this many times on movies and tv and it just bothers me.